Back to marketing basics

Sometimes it’s worth taking a step backwards to help you leap forward.

Now and then I like to re-consider the basics of marketing. It’s easy to make things more complicated than they need to be.

There’s a short sequence of marketing activities that work, again and again. It’s more about words and ideas than anything else, so it’s free.

Here’s what you need to do to get someone to book, buy or decide to visit

Think: does your current marketing do this? Can you change your social media posts so they do this? Does your website take potential visitors through this process, with the right information and persuasion? What do you need to do in future to use this sequence?

Here are the stages. I’ll explain the ‘how’ later.

1. Grab attention.

2. Create interest in your business

3. Create desire: make people want what you have to offer

4. Get them to take action - buy, book, visit

You might have heard of this before: it’s commonly shortened as known as AIDA:

Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

A little more on how to do this:

Attention

Grab attention, stop the scroll. You need to know what your potential visitors are interested in, and what they’ll love about you and your business. You could use a fantastic photo, great headline, question (to which the answer is ‘yes’, not ‘no’!).

Interest

Create interest by highlighting the best features and benefits of your business. The benefits are the most important - what it means for your potential visitors. Don’t overface people with everything you offer: go for the highlights or one strong point first.

Desire

Evoke desire. You need people to think/say, “that’s what I want!” or “that’s for me!”. You can do this by showing the value of what you offer, how it might make someone feel, how they could feel better, how their life will somehow be improved.

Action

This is the key step. If you don’t get your potential visitors to do something like buy, book, or make a decision to visit, the effect of your marketing can get lost. So remember to use calls to action and push to the next step.